Topic(s):  Eternity & Judgment

Todd Clippard

I believe the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 will serve you well in this study. According to this text, all the dead go to the hadean realm (Hades) and await the Judgment. Hades is divided into two dwelling places, one for the righteous and the other for the unrighteous.

The place of the righteous is a place of comfort (v 25) described as Abraham's bosom (v 22). From the cross, Jesus referred to this place as Paradise (Luke 23:43).

The waiting place of the unrighteous is a place of torment (vv 23-25, 28). Peter calls this place Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4 (cf Jude 6). Most scholars agree that torment and Tartarus are the same place. Paradise and Torment are separated by a great impassible gulf (Luke 16:26).

Jesus said in John 5:28-29 that when He returns, "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." Therefore, all the dead are waiting for the second coming of Jesus to be raised, so that their bodies and spirits may be changed and brought together again (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

When a man dies, his body and spirit are forever separated (James 2:26), and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiates 12:7). There is no reason to believe that departed spirits meander throughout the realm of the living. Additionally, Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 teaches that the dead know not any thing under the sun. "Under the sun" is a phrase synonymous with "on the earth." Therefore, the dead have no part in the doings or events on the earth.

Regarding the contacting of the dead: In 1 Samuel 28:3-20, King Saul sought the services of the witch (medium) of Endor. Note how Samuel was unhappy about his spirit being brought back to the realm of the living. One should also note the surprise of the medium when Samuel actually appeared! This shows us those who claim to be able to contact the dead are frauds. God condemned such to protect his people from those who would take advantage of them (much like the modern-day charlatans do today!)

Witchcraft is condemned because it seeks to attribute to men the power reserved to God. While God did, in the first century A.D., give special powers to his servants, those things done in part (miraculous gifts) have long since ceased
(1 Corinthians 13:8-10).